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I COMFDRTmOUOHI^I 
FOR THOSE I 
I AT HOME I 



BMILY V. HAMMONO 



Comfort Thoughts 

for 

Those at Home 



Compiled by 
Emily V. Hammond 

Editor of " Comfort Thoughts for Comfort Kits," 
" Golden Treasury of the Bible," etc. 



ta^ 



New York 

Edwin S. Gorham, Publisher 

11 West 45th St 

1918 



^V5 



Copyright 

EDWIN S. GORHAM 

1918 



©Cf.A5l2214 

Ube IRnfcfterbocl^er press, IRcw IBorft 

JAN 24 1919 



\- 



DEDICATED 

TO 
THOSE OVER HERE WHOSE HEARTS ARE 
WITH THEIR LOVED ONES 
OVER THERE 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The compiler takes pleasure in acknowl- 
edging her indebtedness to the authors 
and publishers who have so generously- 
granted permission to use extracts from 
their copyrighted publications. Among 
these are — 

George H. Doran Co. for A Little Prayer 
for the Man in the Air by John Oxenham, 
Miss Amelia J. Burr for Stay-at-Home Stars, 
Macmillan Co. for How Can I Serve? by 
Hermann Hagedorn and selections from 
Sddhdna and Gitanjali by Rabindranath 
Tagore, Miss Helen Eraser for selections 
from Women and War Work, The Outlook 
Co. for Ad Fineni by Jean Brooke Burt 
and A Prayer by Lyman Abbott, and 
Harper Brothers for selections from Abra- 
ham's Bosom by Basil King. 

Every effort has been made to avoid in- 
fringing on anyone's rights, and if this has 
occurred it has been done unconsciously. 



A LITTLE PRAYER FOR THE MAN 
IN THE AIR 

I NEVER hear 

The growling diapason of a plane up there, 

The deep reverb 'rant humming of a plane 

up there, 
But up to God I wing a little prayer. 
Begging His care 
For him who braves the dangers of the air. 

"God keep you. Bird-man, in your plane 

up there 
Your wings upbear, your heart sustain! 
Give you good flight and oversight. 
And bring you safe to earth again ! ' ' 

I, too, have hostages with fortune up 

above, 
And what may come to you may come to 

mine. 
So, once again, — " God speed you as you 

rove ! 
Both you and mine to His care I consign." 

John Oxenham 



STAY-AT-HOME STARS 

Our service flag has just one star, 
But Mother says, "of course you know 
That you and I, like Father, are 
In service — but the stars that show 
Are for the people that must go. 
Father will know our stars are bright 
Even if no one else can see." 

The sky is full of stars to-night — 
Is it God's service flag, maybe, 
With one for her and one for me? 

Amelia J. Burr 



HOW CAN I SERVE? 

There are strange ways of serving God, 

You sweep a room or turn a sod, 

And suddenly to your surprise 

You hear the whirr of seraphim 

And find you're under God's own eyes 

And building palaces for him. 

There are strange unexpected ways 
Of going soldiering these days, 
It may be only census-blanks 
You're asked to conquer with a pen, 
But suddenly you're in the ranks 
And fighting for the rights of men ! 
Hermann Hagedorn 



MY BOY 

I GAVE my Boy to his country — 
And he sailed away to sea. 
I waved farewell to the Boy I knew, 
For his Captain had said to me : 
"Even if death shall pass him through, 
This Boy will never come back to you." 

I gave my Boy to his country — 
And he never came back to me. 
Though death had played for his life and 

lost. 
Though his body and mind went free, 
War touched his spirit with fire and frost; 
A man had been bom at an awful cost. 

I gave my Boy to his country — 

And it sent a man back to me. 

My part of the price for the world's ad- 
vance. 

His Boyhood lost for liberty. 

Death spared the man, by some glad 
chance. 

But the Boy that he was — had died in 



France. 



S. W. H. 



10 



SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE 

When morning breaks and I arise, 
And see the sunlight play and dance 
Upon the wall, before my eyes, 
I think of him, "Somewhere in France." 

My son, whose boyhood and whose youth 
Were kept so free from care and pain 
By us, who prayed he'd love the truth 
And count true manhood more than gain. 

At noon, when turns the day toward night, 
And clouds float high in heaven's expanse, 
My thoughts are with him, far from sight, 
My son, my pride, "Somewhere in France." 

At night, I gaze upon the skies, 
And myriad stars see at a glance, 
Those stars are shining where he lies. 
My stalwart son, "Somewhere in France." 

God keep him safe, and make me strong 
To do my part where'er it lies. 
Until the right shall conquer wrong 
And Freedom's sun blaze in the skies, 

L. B. H. 



II 



YE THAT HAVE FAITH 

Ye that have faith to look with fearless 
eyes 
Beyond the tragedy of a world at strife, 
And know that out of death and night 
shall rise 
. The dawn of ampler life; 
Rejoice, whatever anguish rend the heart, 
That God has given you a priceless 
dower, 
To live in these great times and have 
your part 
In Freedom's crowning hour, 
That ye may tell your sons who see the 
light 
High in the heavens — their heritage to 
take — 
"I saw the powers of Darkness put to 
flight, 
I saw the morning break." 

Note: — These lines were found penciled 
on a sheet of paper in the pocket of a young 
Australian who died in the trenches at 
Gallipoli — evidently written by him just 
before he met his death. 



12 



OUR AFFINITY WITH THE INFINITE 

Pain, which is the feeling of our finite- 
ness, is not a fixture in our life. It is not 
an end in itself, as joy is. To meet with 
it is to know that it has no part in the true 
permanence of creation. It is what error 
is in our intellectual life. 

It is a truth that man is not a detached 
being, that he has a universal aspect; 
and when he recognizes this, he becomes 
great. 

The tragedy in human life consists in 
our vain attempts to stretch the limits of 
things which can never become unlimited, 
— to reach the infinite by absurdly adding 
to the rungs of the ladder of the finite. 

Gaining a thing is by its nature partial, 
it is limited only to a particular want; 
but being is complete, it belongs to our 
wholeness, it springs not from any neces- 
sity but from our affinity with the infinite, 
which is the principle of perfection that 
we have in our soul. 

That only which is done for love is done 
freely, however much pain it may cause. 
Therefore, working for love, is freedom in 
action. — From Sddhand by Rabindranath 
Tagore. 



13 



SONG FROM GITANJALI 

Where the mind is without fear and the 

head is held high; 
Where knowledge is free; 
Where the world has not been broken up 

into fragments by narrow domestic 

walls ; 
Where words come out from the depth of 

truth; 
Where tireless striving stretches its arms 

towards perfection ; 
Where the clear stream of reason has not 

lost its way into the dreary desert 

sand of dead habit ; 
Where the mind is led forward by thee into 

ever widening thought and action — 
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, 

let my country awake. 

Rabindranath Tagore 



14 



WOMEN AND WAR WORK 

The regeneration of the world cannot 
come from the sacrifice of our men alone, 
or even of some of us at home. The few 
may save countries and do great things, 
but the work of reconstruction rests 
on everybody. Nations are made up of 
individuals, and a nation cannot hope for 
moral and social regeneration except 
through individual self-denial, self-sacri- 
fice, and service. 

It is in our hearts and our own minds 
that the great task of reconstruction must 
be done. 

The greatest task of reconstruction 
for most of us is to make all our actions 
worthy of our highest self — to bring to the 
problems that confront us, not one de- 
tached and prejudiced bit of us, but the 
whole mind and spirit of ourselves the 
best of us always in unity. 

Helen Fraser 



15 



m 



IF 

(With Apologies to Mr. Rudyard Kipling.) 

If you can keep your head while all about 
you 
Are spending cash on foolish things or 
worse, 
If you can do with shabby clothes and 
cornbre^ad 
To buy War Savings Stamps for "Un- 
cle's "purse, 
If you can work and not be tired by 
working 
At some dull round where Conscience 
is the boss, 
With no more chance of getting cash or 
credit 
Than getting the Distinguished Service 
Cross ; 

If you can stick, with all your pulses 
tingling. 
At that small thing you can and must 
do well, 
And not for petty pleasures set them 
jingling— 
Those quarters that must go for shot 
and shell — 

i6 



But watch and work, and turn and twist, 
contriving 
To make a dollar do the work of four, 
And know full well that you are just 
arriving 
At what the French have done for 
years — and more; 

If you can talk and always still remember 
That gossip often plays the German 
game, 
If you can silent be and yet a member 
Of that great host that feeds the Torch's 
flame, 
If you can give your heart and soul and 
spirit 
And all the best you are, the best you've 
won, 
Then only is this sacred land yours to 
inherit, 
And you have earned your right to 
freedom , son ! 

FiTZHUGH Thomson 



17 



BORDERLAND 

There is a mystic borderland that lies 
Just past the limits of our work-day 

world, 
And it is peopled with the friends we met 
And loved, a year, a month, a week or 

day. 
And parted from with aching hearts, yet 

knew 
That through the distance we must loose 

the hold 
Of hand with hand, and only clasp the 

thread 
Of memory.- But still so close we feel this 

land. 
So sure we are that these same hearts are 

true. 
That when in waking dreams there comes 

a call 
That sets the thread of memory aglow: 
We know that just by stretching out the 

hand 
In written word of love, or book, or flower. 
The waiting hand will clasp our own once 

more 
Across the silence, in the same old way.. 



I8 



AD FINEM 

When it is over and the Great Cause won, 
Then you can say how hard it was to go, 
We two together, underneath the sun. 
Alone, on some far hill where sweet winds 

blow. 
But now there is not time for talk, just 

deeds 
Of sacrifice, made glorious to us all. 
We will be brave for one another's needs. 
Answering dry-eyed the country's call. 
We will be wise, my Love, unto the end 
When you must leave me, not forlorn, for 

now 
I know our hearts flame as one fire, and 

blend 
Like mist that gathers at a steamer's bow. 
We have had days together, you and I ; 
Memories of these lie fresh within my 

heart, 
So when the hour must come to say good- 

by, 
Remembering, I will be brave to part. 
When it is over, if you come to me. 
Your clear eyes kind with knowledge of 

the fires 
Of battlefields, God grant we two will see 
Peace, and the waiting dreams of our 

desires. 

Jean Brooke Burt 



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PREPARATION 

Somewhere, dear God, in this great 
world of Thine, 
Lives he who once was absolutely 
mine — 
Before the war with all its horrors grim 
Called to his manhood that it needed 
him. 
So close we walked that naught could 
come between, 
But now, in dreams alone, his face is 
seen. 
So close he held my hand I could not fall, 
And now but silence, as of some dark 
wall. 

I know not if tonight, on land or sea. 
His prayer ascends to ask Thy care of 
me, 
But I do know that when he comes^again — 
When Earth is rid of all this scourging 
pain — 
He will be different, and I, too, must 
grow 
If I, his wife, would understanding 
know^ 

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And when he talks of things all strange 
and new 
■I'd have him find that I have learned 
them, too. 

He'll not have lost the tender little ways 

With which he used to glorify all days, 
But he will wear a look as not of yore — 

As one who sees beyond a closed door. 
Then will I try with all a woman's wiles 

To woo his thoughts across the dreary 
miles — 
To strip them bare of every awful thing, 

And make the horrors that he sees take 
wing. 

So, help me, God, a fitting mate to be 

When my Beloved comes again to me. 
When he recounts, as in heroic dream. 
Some comrade's deed of sacrifice su- 
preme, 
Then I will thank Thee from a woman's 
heart 
That he was there, prepared to do his 
part — 
To give his all if need for that should 
be— 
And yet was spared to come again to 
me. 

Janie Screven Heyward 



21 



WAITING 

Serene, I fold my hands and wait, 
Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea; 
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate. 
For lo ! my own shall come to me. 

I stay my haste, I make delays. 
For what avails this eager pace? 
I stand amid the eternal ways, 
And what is mine shall know my face. 

Asleep, awake, by night or day. 
The friends I seek are seeking me; 
No wind can drive my bark astray, 
Nor change the tide of destiny. 

What matter if I stand alone? 
I wait with joy the coming years; 
My heart shall reap where it hath sown, 
And garner up its fruit of tears. • 

The waters know their own, and draw 
The brook that springs in yonder heights; , 
So flows the good with equal law 1 

Unto the soul of pure delights. 

The stars come nightly to the sky, 
The tidal wave unto the sea; 
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high. 
Can keep my own away from me. 
John Burroughs 



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A PRESENT HEAVEN 

*' Those who love Light inherit it. There 
are no leaps and bounds in life. What 
mortals call death takes them where it 
finds them — as every day and hour does 
the same." 

"Is death an invention? Isn't it the 
most real of all realities ? " " Everything is 
real to which we lend reality. It has 
just the reality we lend to it." 

"We see God by what we understand of 
Him; we understand Him by H;s attri- 
butes ; and we measure His attributes by 
their beauty and goodness and practi- 
cality. Whenever there has been a bless- 
ing for you to enjoy, you've seen God. 
Whenever love has helped you or kindness 
cheered you, you've seen God. There is 
not one world in which God is seen and 
another where He is not. There is not a 
life with God and another life away from 
Him. There is only one world, and God 
fills it ; there is only one life, to which God 
is All-in- All. There is no Beyond. There 
is only a universal Here! There is only 
an ever-present Now! To know God is 
eternal life, and they who possess even 
the rudiments of that knowledge shall 
never and can never die." 

Basil King 



23 



FROM THE TRENCHES 

O death! At home they call it death 

And sit and weep because they think 

Their sons beloved are slain, 

And they are left alone 

To mourn their dead. 

While we, across the trenches' top, 

Have leaped to Life, and find 

We have but left behind 

The rags and blood and dirt 

Of grimy battlefield, and — 

A great host of us. 

All eager, happy and alive — 

Are pressing onwards towards a goal 

We dimly see, of duty, beauty, 

Love and Life, which calls us on 

To tasks more glorious than 

We could achieve midst stress 

And storm and reek of cannon smoke. 

Hark! You can hear us calling 

From each to each a greeting 

As we meet, — comrades and erstwhile 

foe. 
"Friend! Is this all to death? 
Why should we ever fear 
This passing through a shadow 
Which but seems a moment's shock, 

24 



d 



As though we had but bowed our heads 
To pass beneath a narrow doorway 
From some dug-out small, and found 
Ourselves a little blinded by the light 
Which shines from heaven's eternal 

day? 
You here! — You too! — And you! 
How glad we are to find 
Each other, and to prove 
There is no death! " , 

Mary Lloyd McConnel 



25 



BIBLE VERSES 
Selections from Isaiah 

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 
whose mind is stayed on thee: because he 
trusteth in thee. 

Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in 
the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. 

He giveth power to the faint; and to 
them that have no might he increaseth 
strength. 

They that wait upon the Lord .shall 
renew their strength ; they shall mount up 
with wings as eagles; they shall run, and 
not be weary, and they shall walk, and 
not faint. 

Arise, shine; for thy ligl^ is come, and 
the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. 

For, behold, the darkness shall cover 
the earth, and gross darkness the people: 
but the Lord shall arise upon them, and 
his glory shall be seen upon thee. 

Thy sun shall no more go down; neither 
shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the 
Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and 
the days of thy mourning shall be ended. 

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; 
because the Lord hath anointed me to 

26 



preach good tidings unto the meek: he 
hath sent me to bind up the broken- 
hearted, to proclaim Hberty to the cap- 
tives, and the opening of the prison to 
them that are bound; to proclaim the 
acceptable year of the Lord, and the day 
of vengeance of our God; to comfort all 
that mourn; to appoint unto them that 
mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty 
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the 
garment of praise for the spirit of heavi- 
ness; that they might be called trees of 
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, 
that he might be glorified. 

Selections from Psalms 

The Lord is my light and my salvation- 
whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength 
of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 

I had fainted, unless I had believed to 
see the goodness of the Lord in the land 
of the living. 

Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, 
and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, 
I say, on the Lord. 

Thou art my hiding-place; thou shalt 
preserve me from trouble; thou shalt 
compass me about with songs of deliver- 
ance. 

I will instruct thee, and teach thee in 
the way which thou shalt go: I will guide 
thee with mine eye. 

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a 
broken heart ; and saveth such as be of a 
contrite spirit. 

27 



Many are the afflictions of the righteous : 
but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. 

God is our refuge and strength, a very 
present help in trouble. 

He maketh wars to cease unto the 
end of the earth ; he breaketh the bow, and 
cutteth the spear in sunder: he burneth 
the chariot in fire. 

Be still, and know that I am God; I 
will be exalted among the heathen, I will 
be exalted in the earth. 

He that dwelleth in the secret place of 
the Most High, shall abide under the 
shadow of the Almighty. 

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror 
by night, nor for the arrow that fiieth by 
day, nor for the pestilence that walketh 
in darkness, nor for the destruction that 
wasteth at noonday. 

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and 
ten thousand at thy right hand, but it 
shall not come nigh thee. 

Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, 
and see the reward of the wicked. 

Because thou hast made the Lord, 
which is my refuge, even the Most High, 
thy habitation, there shall no evil befall 
thee, neither shall any plague come nigh 
thy dwelling. 

For he shall give his angels charge over 
thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, 
from whence cometh my help. 

My help cometh from the Lord, which 
made heaven and earth. 

28 



He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: 
he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall 
neither slumber nor sleep. 

The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is 
thy shade upon thy right hand. 

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor 
the moon by night. 

The Lord shall preserve thee from all 
evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 

The Lord shall preserve thy going out, 
and thy coming in, from this time forth, 
and even for evermore. 

Words of the Master 

Come unto me, all ye that labour and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest. 

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they 
shall see God. 

I am the light of the world: he that 
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, 
but shall have the light of life. 

My sheep hear my voice, and I know 
them, and they follow me: and I give 
unto them eternal life; and they shall 
never perish, neither shall any man pluck 
them out of my hand. My Father, which 
gave them me, is greater than all; and 
no man is able to pluck them out of my 
Father's hand. 

I will not leave you comfortless: I will 
come to you. 

Peace I leave with you, my peace I 
give unto you: not as the world giveth, 

29 



give I unto you. Let not your heart be 
troubled, neither let it be afraid. 

This is my commandment, That ye 
love one another, as I have loved you- 

Greater love hath no man than this, 
that a man lay down his life for his friends. 

This is life eternal, that they might know 
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
whom thou hast sent. 

Words of St. Paul 

For I reckon that the sufferings of this 
present time are not worthy to be com- 
pared with the glory which shall be re- 
vealed in us. 

We know that all things work together 
for good to them that love God, to them 
who are the called according to his pur- 
pose. 

If God be for us, who can be against us? 

For I am persuaded that neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
other creature, shall be able to separate us 
from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord. 

All things are your's; and ye are Christ's; 
and Christ is God's. 

There hath no temptation taken you 
but such as is common to man: but God 
is faithful, who will not suffer you to be 
tempted above that ye are able; but will 
with the temptation also make a way to 
escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 

30 



Now we see through a glass, darkly; but 
then face to face: now I know in part; 
but then shall I know even as also I am 
known. 

And now abideth faith, hope, love, 
these three; but the greatest of these is 
love. 

Be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord, foras- 
much as ye know that your labour is not 
in vain in the Lord. 

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is 
liberty. 

We all, with open face beholding as 
in a glass the glory of the Lord, are 
changed into the same image from glory 
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the 
Lord. 

Our light affliction, which is but 
for a moment, worketh for us a far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory. 

While we look not at the things which 
are seen, but at the things which are not 
seen: for the things which are seen are 
temporal but the things which are not 
seen are eternal. 

My grace is sufficient for thee: for my 
strength is made perfect in weakness. 
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in 
my infirmities, that the power of Christ 
may rest upon me. 

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so 
fulfil the law of Christ. 

Be careful for nothing; but in every- 

31 



thing by prayer and supplication, with 
thanksgiving, let your requests be made 
known unto God. 

And the peace of God, which passeth 
all understanding, shall keep your hearts 
and minds through Christ Jesus. 



32 



EVENING HYMN 

Father Divine, the daylight now is 
gone 

I rest in Thee. 
Teach me Thy will, that I may be at one 

With love and harmony. 

My rest is following where truth shall 
lead 

To realms above, 
And in Thy service I have every need 

Supplied by perfect love. 

Thou art my strength, O Lord, it cannot 
fail, 
Supply Thou me. 
So when the glowing stars shall wane and 

pale 
I rise to work for Thee. . 

No evil can approach me while I sleep. 

For God is near, 
And He in harmony His child will keep 

Till daylight doth appear. 

Peace, perfect peace and love shall be my 
rest 
When night doth fall, 
I sink to sleep, by thoughts of heaven 
blest, 
Knowing that God is all. 



33 



MORNING HYMN 

Father Divine, the sunrise gloweth 
bright, 
I rise to do Thy will; 
The love that kept me through the pass- 
ing night 
Can guide and keep me still. 

Fear cannot enter where the Love Divine 

Doth ever dwell, 
The guidance and the strength alone are 
Thine 

And Thou do'st all things well. 

The weight of a decision unto me doth not 
belong, 
Thou rulest all, I look alone to Thee 
And in Thy strength am strong. 

The power of love alone the world can 
sway, 
Good shall prevail. 
If naught but love reign in my heart to- 
day 
Nothing I do can fail. 



34 



A PRAYER 

O God, in whom we live and move and 
have our being, and who dost also live 
and move and have some measure of Thy 
being in us Thy children, we do not ask 
for Thy presence, for we know that we are 
always in Thy presence. We ask that we 
may have the eyes to see Thee; and the 
ears to hear Thy still, small voice, and the 
hearts to welcome Thee; that we may 
always walk in Thy ways, inspired by Thy 
companionship. Amen. 

Lyman Abbott 



35 



By Emily V. Hammond 



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